Tik...Tok...BOOM!

Tik Tok was banned by the Supreme Court, went dark before the ban went into effect, and then a few hours later, after everyone had a proper meltdown, it rose like a phoenix. As of this writing, no one is really sure what the final outcome will be.


While I do feel bad for everyone who will see their biz impacted by this ban, here's some real talk - building a business dependent upon a social media platform is like building a house on rented land.

I've heard too many horror stories of people getting their Facebook account shut down, losing their massive FB group, or being shadowbanned on Instagram, etc.

While social media is necessary in today's business world, it should complement marketing efforts that aren't vulnerable to the whims of an unpredictable algorithm.

Just like diversifying your investment portfolio is a good idea, so is having multiple streams of visibility and audience growth. Here are a few suggestions to put into play...

Email Marketing

Email is king and turning your social media followers into email subscribers should be your priority since you own your email list, you don't own your social media following.

If you're just starting out, there are a few email softwares you can tap into that are free up to a certain number of subscribers:

Affiliate Marketing/Joint Ventures

In a nutshell, affiliates and joint ventures are partnering with other professionals who have offers/services that compliment what you offer to your audience. These are an excellent opportunity to be presented as a trusted expert to an engaged audience. Although the terms are often used interchangeably, affiliate marketing is when other people promote your offer to their audience via a special link to your sales page or offer. If someone buys through that link, the affiliate will receive a percentage of the sale.

For example, if you've purchased something and think people in your audience could benefit from it, you could sign up to become an affiliate and then promote it through an email campaign or a link on "My Favourite Biz Tools" page on your website. Affiliate marketing is a great way to make passive income, especially if you're promoting a SaaS offer (Software as a Subscription) which will give you ongoing monthly income.

You can do the same with your own offers by having other people promote them to their followers. Not only will this grown your audience but you'll have new customers without having to spend money on ads or do any extra work. A great software to create your affiliate links is ThriveCart, which is very easy to use and has a very affordable one-time payment (*yes, that is an affiliate link). You can set up your sales pages in minutes and it manages all the tracking so you'll know how much to send in commissions to your affiliates.

Joint Ventures are similar in that partners are promoting you but usually these are reciprocal and are for an event (like a workshop, webinar, ebook) that leads into a higher ticket offer. These are an excellent way to grow your email list quickly as more people will sign up for the free lead magnet than purchase something outright (as in affiliate marketing) but they might purchase from you some time down the road. If you'd like to get started with JVs, I recommend Michael Whitehouse's JV Connect as a great spot to meet other marketers looking for partnerships.

Summits and Bundles/Giveaways

Summits are on-line conferences featuring speakers around a specific theme. You'll have people sign up for your talk, adding them to your subscriber list. These can be a quick way to increase your email list while also upping your authority as an expert in your field.

If you have a low-ticket offer, you could participate in a bundle, where you'll donate your offer and it will be "bundled" with other offers. Buyers pay a fee (usually around $97) and receive all of the offers, which could be worth thousands of dollars had they purchased them separately.

Giveaways are the same as a bundle but without any payment being exchanged. Infinite List offers giveaway opportunities to participate in - while there is a fee (*not an affiliate link) I'm not aware of anyone else offering a service like this.


There are a lot of moving pieces to running a business, and if you're looking for an all-in-one marketing platform (website, blog, sales pages, SMS marketing, affiliate marketing, membership hosting, on-demand webinars, social media posting, calendar scheduler), I HIGHLY recommend Funnel Gorgeous Funnels (built on Go High Level), which is what I use (*affiliate link). They just wrapped up an Audience Builder challenge for members and if you sign up, you'll have access to it. Moving to this platform was a serious game changer for my own business as I saved hundreds of dollars a month by not having to pay for various software platforms and Zapier so they could interact with each other. The customer service is outstanding and it's a very supportive community. Plus, the free templates are gorgeous (hence the name)!

Paid Media

Facebook ads, Google ads, ads on podcasts - there are a number of options to advertise your business to targeted audiences. I know a lot of people feel overwhelmed by ads, especially with the algorithms changing daily it seems, but running ads is like pouring gasoline onto your marketing bonfire. For $8 a day, I've been running one lead generating FB ad that's bringing me 15 - 20 new email subscribers daily. Thanks so these new subscribers buying the back end offers (thank you), my ad costs are covered. Ads don't have to be costly, if you know how to set them up properly.

There are a couple of people I recommend to learn from - one is Laurel Portie and her $5 a day strategy. Her course is a ridiculous $7 a month (yes, you read that correctly) and she gives a ton of value.

Emily Hirsh is another ad powerhouse and she's running her very popular free ad challenge next week- you can sign up here. None of these are affiliate links btw, I'm simply sharing as I know they'll be helpful :)

Earned Media (magazines, newspapers, TV, radio, blogs, podcasts)
Well, you just KNEW that this was coming ;)

Quite simply, there is nothing that will build your visibility, authority, and audience faster than tapping into the huge audiences the media outlets have built up and being presented as a credible subject expert by them (for free). Best of all, these podcast episodes, magazine articles, and newspaper features don't disappear from the feed - they are evergreen and searchable.

These first two weeks of 2025 are showing us that success this year will come from not putting all of your (marketing) eggs into one basket.Yes, social media is great but it shouldn't be the only thing you're relying on for audience growth.

Make it easy on yourself and choose one of the above strategies to set up each quarter. Not all, just one. Work on it for the quarter, then move on to the next one in April, when Quarter 2 starts. Rinse & repeat in July and October. Do this and you'll have a pretty robust marketing system in place before Black Friday rolls around.

Larissa Bantingsocial media, audience growth, Tik TokComment